Independent Truck Company is a
skateboard truck
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.
The skateboarder ...
manufacturer based in
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...
. Established in 1978, the company is owned by
NHS, Inc. and sponsors an extensive list of team riders.
History
The company was co-founded by Richard Novak, Jay Shiurman,
Fausto Vitello
Fausto Vitello (August 7, 1946 – April 22, 2006) was an Argentine-American businessman, magazine publisher, and skateboarder. Vitello was the creator of ''Thrasher'' magazine and co-creator of Independent trucks.
Early life
Vitello was born in ...
, and
Eric Swenson
Eric Leon Swenson (August 4, 1946 – June 20, 2011) was an American skateboard designer and magazine publisher.
Born in San Francisco, Swenson was the chief skateboard designer for the Independent Truck Company, which he co-founded with skateboa ...
and the ''Stage 1'' model was the inaugural product, released on May 23, 1978, in
Newark, California. The Independent truck (or "Indy") was designed as a response to the lack of quality skateboard trucks on the market at the time. In reference to the two other major truck companies on the market, Blackhart stated that ''one broke, and one didn’t turn'' (Bennett Trucks and Tracker Trucks, respectively).
[Denike, Bob. ''Built to Grind: 25 Years of hardcore skateboarding from the archives of Independent Truck Company''. San Francisco: NHS, 2004. Print.]
Independent trucks are manufactured with:
*high quality aircraft grade T6 aluminum alloy
*high tensile SAE 4130 Chromoly alloy steel axles
*high rebound formula stock bushings.
Product releases
*Stage 1 - 1978
*Stage 2 - 1979
*Stage 3 - 1982
*Stage 4 - 1984
*Stage 5 - 1986
*Stage 6 - 1991
*Stage 7 - 1993
*Stage 8 - 1997
*Stage 9 - 2003
*Stage 10 - 2009
*Stage 11 - 2012
Logo
The logo for the trucks was based on the
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...
according to the author, Jim Phillips. It has remained the Independent logo since the company's inception and was derived from the French variation of the
Cross pattée
A cross pattée, cross patty or cross paty, also known as a cross formy or cross formée (french: croix pattée, german: Tatzenkreuz), is a type of Christian cross with arms that are narrow at the centre, and often flared in a curve or straight ...
.
Jim Phillips says in his 2007 book "The Art of Jim Phillips":
In 2021, after many vocalized opinions that the cross was indeed too "Nazi-like", the main logo was changed and they now only occasionally use the iron cross logo.
References
External links
*{{Official website, www.independenttrucks.com
Skateboarding companies
1978 establishments in the United States